Dictionary › 腮

腮

sāi

HSK 6 Character

What 腮 means

1. cheek

Other readings

腮 is 多音字 — it is read more than one way, and the reading changes the meaning.

• sāivariant of {腮|sāi}

Example sentences

• 我怕她可能得了腮腺炎。
  Wǒ pà tā kěnéng déle sāixiànyán.
  I'm afraid she may have the mumps.
• 你的腮帮子肿了多久了？
  How long have your cheeks been swollen?

Words starting with 腮

• 腮帮子sāi bāng zicheek
• 腮帮sāi bāngcheek; upper (of a shoe)
• 腮托sāi tuōchin rest (e.g. for a violin)
• 腮红sāi hóngrouge (cosmetics)
• 腮腺sāi xiànparotid gland; saliva gland in cheek
• 腮颊sāi jiácheek; jaw
• 腮胡sāi húsideburns
• 腮腺炎sāi xiàn yánmumps

Words containing 腮

• 络腮胡子luò sāi hú zifull beard
• 托腮tuō sāito rest one's chin in one's hand
• 麻腮风má sāi fēngmeasles, mumps and rubella (MMR) (abbr. for 麻疹
• 抓耳挠腮zhuā ěr náo sāito tweak one's ears and scratch one's cheeks…
• 桃腮粉脸táo sāi fěn liǎnrosy-cheeked (idiom)
• 笨嘴拙腮bèn zuǐ zhuō sāisee 笨嘴拙舌
• 落腮胡子luò sāi hú zivariant of 络腮胡子

Characters built on 月

These share the phonetic component 月 (yuè), which is why their readings rhyme. Learning them as a family is far cheaper than learning them one at a time.

• 胎tāifetus; classifier for litters (of puppies etc); padding (in clothing or bedding)
• 脉màiarteries and veins; vein (on a leaf, insect wing etc)
• 肽tàipeptide (two or more amino acids linked by peptide bonds CO-NH)
• 胲hǎihydroxylamine (chemistry)

Characters that look like 腮

Easy to confuse on sight. Compare them side by side once and the pair stops costing you.

• 稳wěnsettled; steady; stable
• 腿tuǐleg
• 膜mómembrane; film
• 腕wànwrist; (squid, starfish etc) arm
• 棵kēclassifier for trees, cabbages, plants etc
• 鹏PéngPeng, large fabulous bird; roc

Sounds the same

Read sāi, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 塞to plug; to stop up; to stuff in; (bound form) a stopper; a cork
• 噻used in transliteration
• 鳃gills of fish
• 嘥to waste (Cantonese)
• 揌to shake

Where 腮 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · chà–shǎn (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• How characters are built from components.
• How to learn Chinese characters.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read sāi correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.